Despite its recent financial troubles, AMD's research and development seems to be moving fairly briskly. At theInternational Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) this week, AMD will announce that it has made several transistor improvements. One of these advances pertains to FinFET transistors, which should reduce electrical leakage. IBM, Intel, and TSMC have all done work on multi-gate devices, which are currently the front-runner to replace standard CMOS devices. AMD will also announce research into transistor gates based on nickel. Nickel is superior to current polysilicon gates because it would allow for better current flow through the transistor. This approach may also be less expensive to manufacture than current approaches. AMD has made progress on the Flash memory front: working with Stanford University, AMD created a Flash cell using “nanowires” only 5 nm wide. The use of these nanowires should result in memory cells that are considerably smaller and faster than current devices.

USER COMMENTS 11 comment(s)

nano=vapor(3:43pm EST Mon Dec 09 2002)so tired of hearing about nano-this & nano-that which MAY lead to improving my life ten-fold. I'll have to see it to believe it (pun?).

as far as I'm concerned, nano-tech = vapor-tech for the time being.

– by Eyad

Patience…(4:19pm EST Mon Dec 09 2002)Nano advances are being made…and every SINGLE time people have said they are coming they have also said these are simply small advances…PATIENCE MAN….we are working on a molecular level…just because we were able to hypothesize about it 50 years ago doesnt mean it is going to come easily…we are talking about spinning an electron on direction or another in order to get a 1 or a 0…do you realize how freaking awesome that is…suddenly with 1024 electrons u have a bit…8 of those a bytes…and then 1 million of those (about 8 million eletrcons 1 MB…) now multiphy that by 512 u have a nice ram chip…HOWEVER…THIS IS STILL SMALLER THAN A FREAKING PINHEAD!!! DO YOU COMPREHEND THE LEVEL ON WHICH PEOPLE ARE WORKING!!!

this stuff will be one of those things that once we get a hold on it…it will put fear in some people…and it will amaze others beyond all imaginable levels…imagine building robots like this that break down garbage to molecular levels so we can recycle it…and then imagine pouring 10 million of them in a dump…

patience… – by distempered

patience(4:53pm EST Mon Dec 09 2002)it's never been a virtue of mine :)

In any case, I can appreciate the difficulty of working on such extreme scales, it's just that whenever someone makes 0.1% progress there's a press release promising “flying cars” are just around the corner. If anything, its these spinsters that should cool it and stop hyping everything like sliced bread. Nano-tech ain't easy, it'll take time to get right. – by Eyad

distempered(5:13pm EST Mon Dec 09 2002)I was under the impression that each bit was either a 1 or 0. So does it take 1024 electrons pointing at 0 or 1 to actually turn the circuit on or off?

Nanotechnology is so awesome!! – by MrX

what the heck?(7:25pm EST Mon Dec 09 2002)what the heck are you guys talking about? the post mention that AMD is making the flash cell 5 nanometer wide.that's 5 billionth of a meter. what is so vaporware about that? – by ????

Funny(10:51pm EST Tue Dec 10 2002)this is all kind of funny to me. i'm a grad student (electrical engineering) working on multiple process technologies…. first of all, “nano”technology refers to any gate length of less than 100nm. right now, p4's for instance are at 130nm (0.130 um). so when people mention nanotechnology and your computer isn't on the tip of a pencil, calm down. :OP that's gonna be a while. and guys, if you want an athlon or p4 using 25nm finfets, just ask amd or intel and hand them $1 billion and they'll take care of it right away. before you speak, pick up a good book on solid state technologies, microelectronics, vlsi, and electromagnets, and then post. :OPstick to the computer games and we'll stick to manipulating Si and Si02 with phosphorus and boron on the atomic scale, so that your games run faster. – by nonowhere

Conceited(3:25pm EST Wed Feb 12 2003)Hey nono,

Perhaps you could stop patting yourself on the back for a second about your amazing grasp on the subject at hand, and stop sneering at others who haven't gone through school with you. Why do you feel that only those who have graduate degrees in this subject should be allowed to post their observations? You might be surprised at how much people know just from reading and doing research on a subject. I read some reasonable and cogent thoughts in the posts on this subject, and I don't think anyone was setting themselves up as an expert. You're probably young, so it's somewhat understandeable, and no doubt quite able at what you do. Just remember that conceit and pedantism isn't attractive, wherever it rears it's head. You never know — you might learn something from “the computer gamers”! – by Not a sparky